Pioneer's Youth & Young Adult Division Celebrates Teen's Adoption

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Our staff in our Youth and Young Adult division https://pioneerhumanservices.org/youth-programs work very hard to create stability and a support system for the juveniles we serve in the various residential programs. Often times, the successes include keeping the youth in school or helping them to find employment and engagement in the community.

About the ProgramAt the Pioneer Youth Center - J Street program, the staff was overjoyed to be involved in fostering a relationship between one of the resident’s, N’athon, and a family that adopted him. J Street provides Behavior Rehabilitation Services for up to 16 youth, both male and female, that are 13-17 years of age and have experienced abuse or neglect, or have had an unsuccessful transition in the foster care system. The program provides a temporary intensive wraparound support and treatment programs for youth with extremely high-level service needs. The services are used to safely stabilize youth and assist in achieving a permanent residence plan or a less intensive service.

N'athon Works on His Behavior and is AdoptedN’athon is a 16 year old young man that came to J Street in August 2018 and was adopted eight months later by a loving family. It is not common to have a child of his age, and past severe behavioral problems, be chosen and accepted for adoption. It was very rewarding for all the staff that worked with him on his behavior to witness the adoption process play out and all that was involved. The couple that adopted N'athon is from Idaho, and as you can imagine this took some creativity to foster a relationship to ensure an easy transition. The couple made several trips to Washington as well as flying N'athon to Idaho to help integrate him into what would be his new home and community.

Time to CelebrateLana Crawford, J Street director stated, “We were so thrilled to witness N’athon’s hard work on his behavior improvements. He responded exceedingly well to the structure of our program and successfully met all of the individual goals in his service plan of building appropriate boundaries, learning coping skills and controlling his impulsive reactions.”

Crawford added, “When the family was found that was interested in adopting a teenage boy with severe behavioral problems it was a blessing. Their love and support has helped to stabilize N’athon and has given him the chance to live a life filled with love and happiness. All of us at J Street are celebrating is success and wish him a wonderful life going forward.”